


so this is love

by macerrs



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-17
Updated: 2013-07-17
Packaged: 2017-12-20 11:07:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/886538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/macerrs/pseuds/macerrs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>5 people mako mori loves</p>
            </blockquote>





	so this is love

**Author's Note:**

> for the kink meme prompt "5 people mako mori loves"

**Her mother**

Sometimes when Mako was in a hurry, she’d accidentally press up passersby in the street, pressing her way forward. Today, she leaned against an elderly woman in the street , trying to pass her quickly as she made her way across the busy intersection but instead of moving forward, her feet slowed to a shuffle, as if a spell was cast turning them into blocks of cement. Mako turned towards the woman and took a breath to level herself – an image suddenly clicked in her mind. Her mother’s perfume. Or in actuality, it probably wasn’t. Mako was only a child when she died, but the scent evoked flashes of her in Mako’s mind. Flowers and blue slacks, long hair and perfumed wrists, silk scarves and gold button earrings.

Mako loved her mother, even though she barely remembered the specifics. She knew her mother had a dimple on her left cheek that her father would kiss when they thought Mako wasn’t looking. She knew her mother hated thunderstorms and would shut off all the lights at home and have all of them sit in the closet, as if waiting for a hurricane. She remembered her mother’s hugs, her body pressed up so near, her face resting on Mako’s shoulder, Mako climbing her like a tree.

The red shoes her mother bought her as an early birthday present, the red color bouncing off of Mako’s face in delight. There was a photo, somewhere. She remembered the flash of a camera the moment she received the gift.

Mako closed her eyes briefly. She felt a pain in her stomach. The woman in front of her jabbed her for walking too close, giving her a scathing look. Mako passed by quickly, shaking her head, trying to forget. 

**Stacker**

Mako crossed the street and slowed her pace down to a crawl, letting herself be a pebble in a stream of people walking around her. She felt a drop of water on her neck and looked up to the sky. Grey clouds, almost black, gazed upon her. A drop became a few, until the rain pummeled down, angry and hard, trying to cleanse a damaged world – an impossible task.

Mako, who’d forgotten her umbrella back at base camp, ducked into a shop doorway to avoid the forced baptism. The shop keeper called out to her, “Don’t linger, come in!” and so she cautiously entered the store. A toy shop. The owner, an older man, older than Stacker, with hair already white, nodded at her and smiled. She gave a thin smile back and turned to look out the window.

The rain poured down hard with no signs of stopping. She let her eyes drift, looking at the multicolored kites and water guns with little interest. Her eyes then focused - in the center of the shop’s display was a toy Jaeger – Coyote Tango. Stacker’s Jaeger. Automatically, she reached out to it, her fingers resting lightly on the surface. She picked it up and felt the weight of it in her hand, then drew it near her face at eye-level.

Mako remembered the first time she saw Coyote. Alone and lost and frightened, then out of the smoke and rubble came the Jaeger. And she saw Stacker for the first time then too. She remembered thinking he was a super hero, there to save her and her alone. She could see the whites of his teeth sparkle in the light and she remembered grinning back at him, so happy to see this Superman. He came down and carried her in his arms, telling her was so strong, so brave. “You conquered the Kaiiju!” he said to her, smiling widely. She loved Stacker and wished she didn’t. Losing her parents was one tragedy. But losing her new family, Stacker, was one of her own creation.

Mako set the toy Jaeger down. The rain had stopped. She stepped outside again.

**Her father**

The sun was breaking through, the light bouncing off the puddles outside, blinding her momentarily. A little boy splashed in a puddle near her feet, soaking her through her shoes. She felt the water between her toes. A memory flashed back suddenly – the beach, the sea, her father holding her by the hands and spinning her until he let go, dropping her in the shallow water. She would laugh and laugh and laugh. Her mother would rarely come, for some reason. She hated the sea or the smell of seaweed or the crowds along the water – Mako wasn’t clear about why.

But always her and her father. Together. Early mornings, probably weekends when her father didn’t work, though Mako couldn’t remember for sure. The grasp of his hands, the sand under her feet. Then her father would pick her up, dry her off with a rough towel that made her hair stick up on all ends.

Sometimes these memories felt like a dream, something Mako made up when she missed her father so desperately, even with Stacker’s presence. But then she would remember the time her father let her go and she fell onto a jagged shell that sliced her foot right open. Mako remembered red water.

Water between her toes. The scar on the sole of her right foot was light but still remained. 

**Gipsy Danger**

When Mako made it back to the base, the sun was shining so brightly as if it hadn’t even torrentially rained at all earlier that day. She meant to head back to her room but without thinking, her feet led her to Gipsy Danger’s hanger – where she’d sit and wait for action -- before that final mission, at least. It was empty, since their Jaeger was now in the depths of the ocean.

She didn’t love Gipsy Danger, not like she loved Stacker’s Coyote Tango. But she missed her. And she loved the idea of Gipsy Danger. She sometimes wished she had been a Jaeger pilot years ago – she could have been an action doll. Her hair would have had to be changeable, though; she never stuck with one color too long. She fingered her blue. Maybe green. Mako smiled to herself at the thought.

She thought about being a pilot with Raleigh then. How they would have made Gipsy Danger, _their_ Jaeger, fly. 

**Raleigh**

Mako dropped her belongings on her table, kicked off her shoes and dropped down into her bed. She laid there, her eyes looking up at the metallic ceiling above her. She shut her eyes for a moment. She opened them again. Sometimes Mako felt like the days moved so slowly now that the war was over, that if she shut and opened her eyes, each day was exactly the same. But other days felt so far away from that day – the day the portal closed. The day, Raleigh would correct her, they closed the portal. Sometimes Mako lied to herself and pretend when Raleigh said ‘they’ he meant the entire team, when she knew he meant him and her.

Raleigh. The name was a city she’d never been to. He’d never been there either; she asked him once a week after the portal closed. She cocked her head, biting a piece of toast at breakfast. He looked at her, smiling slowly, “No, I’ve never been there.”

“You should. It’s your namesake,” Mako said.

“One day.” He looked hopeful these days. Bright eyes, light feet.

Mako pulled herself out of her memory. She rubbed her feet together, leaned back, stretched out.

She heard a noise outside her door. Looking out the peep hole – Raleigh. He hadn’t knocked yet, so she watched him. He still wore his sweater, even though it was the middle of summer.

“It’s habit,” he said. “You’re too lazy to find other clothes,” she said. “I don’t mind taking my shirt off, Mako,” he said, laughing, pretending to strip. There was that glimpse of the super star Jaeger pilot she’d heard about. Mako laughed, “Nothing I haven’t seen before.”

She was tired of waiting. She opened the door. He looked startled but pleased.

“Hello, Raleigh,” Mako smiled.

“Mako.” He smiled widely. “You look –”

“Terrible? I was caught in the rain.”

He looked straight at her, his face serious. “Good.”

Mako shook her head. “Don’t lie to me, Raleigh.” She gestured to him to come inside. He did.

“Look what I found at a toy shop.” She passed a bag to him. Raleigh opened it and laughed.

“Fuckin’ Gipsy Danger.” He looked over at Mako and she laughed too.

The toy version of their Jaeger was tiny and plastic and throwaway but Raleigh held it gently. “I’ve missed her,” he said, softly.

“I miss her too,” Mako said, softer.

Raleigh looked at Mako. “She’s where we first met.”

Mako’s forehead crinkled. “We met on the helicopter pad, I came out with an umbrella, and I –”

“No, I know. But we met here –,” Raleigh pressed the palm of his hand against her forehead and then against his own.

Mako nodded and pressed her hand on top of his. "I know."


End file.
